Page 47 of Beautiful Killer

“I was wondering if my place as all set for me to go back. You said Cage had someone fixing my door?”

His shoulders relaxed instantly, and his expression lost some of the hardness. “Yeah, it’s done.”

Oh my God, he was. He was freaking jealous. I made myself ignore that fact, which was not easy, because so what? It didn’t mean anything. Not many guys would want their friends going out with a woman they’d been seeing . . . or in my case, sleeping with. That reaction had nothing to do with me. It was some kind of man code, or something, right? “So does that mean I can go home?”

He watched me carefully. “I’ve got him installing sensors on the upper level and a couple more cameras today, should be good tomorrow.”

Okay, wow. That seemed excessive. “You really think that’s necessary? How would anyone even get to the second floor?”

He lifted his mug, finished off what was left and put it in the sink. “Not taking any chances.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said, “Thanks.” Which didn’t really seem adequate.

His body turned toward me more fully, and his eyes dropped to my chest and back up. His Adam’s apple slid up and down his throat. “I, ah—” He stopped talking suddenly.

“What is it?” I asked. Now what? I didn’t think I could handle much more.

He swallowed again and motioned to my top. “Knew that color would look good on you.”

I stared down at myself in surprise. God. How did he do that? Knock the wind from my lungs and make my knees weak with just a few words? If anyone else said that to me, I’d thank them and move on. Coming from Zeke, it meant so much more. This man barely talked, didn’t like to get personal, which meant when he paid you a compliment, he meant it. Those weren’t just throwaway words. I was trying to work out what to say when his phone started ringing.

He pulled it from his pocket and answered. “Yeah.” He listened to whoever was talking. “No one else can do it?” He cursed, then, “Fine.”

“Problem?” I asked when he ended the call.

“Need to go to work. Surveillance job.”

Suddenly, I couldn’t stand the idea of being here on my own another day. “So you’ll just be watching from a distance? Reporting what you see?”

“Pretty much.”

I put down my bottle of water. “Can I come?”

He jerked back a little. “It’ll more than likely be boring as hell.”

He was frowning again.

“I promise I won’t get in the way. I just . . . I don’t really want to be on my own.”

That assessing gaze took me in, and I realized the way that sounded, that he might assume I didn’t want to be alone for a different reason. But I wasn’t scared. I wanted to be . . . near him, which was why I should let him go without me. Instead, I let him come to whatever conclusion he came to. What are you doing, Sunny?

Finally, he said, “Get your jacket, we need to get going.”

I rushed upstairs to get my things. I should have felt bad for letting him think I was freaked when I wasn’t, but this was more than likely our last day together, and I just . . . I wanted to be with him. Shoving on my jacket, I grabbed my bag and followed him out to his truck.